A Ghost from the Past
by Lauriesf
Summary: General Jack O'Neill gets a call from someone he doesn't want to hear about
1. Chapter 1

A Ghost from the Past

1300 : Jack looked at the clock on his office wall. Not even half-way through his long, unending day's work of writing reports and meeting the teams coming from routine checks on friendly planets and discovery missions of newer ones.

It had been almost six months since he started his new job as commander of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, replacing those people he had admired : Hammond and then Landry. He was the boss now and a General. He was well-respected and even loved by his men at the SGC, but in moments like those, he looked back with envy on the years he had spent roaming the galaxies with his own team. God he missed the good old days !

Well, he should really stop brooding... It didn't help a tat, especially with the headache that had been thumping louder ever since he had received a personal phone call around 0800 that very morning.

Sara had called at work she'd said because it seemed that she could never reach him at home. Truth was, she had hurt him badly enough a year ago when she'd called out of the blue to let him know she was going to remarry. So, now, each time her phone number got on his phone's screen, he let the phone ring until she got tired and hung up.

« You really are desperate, aren't you, to call me like that ? », he snorted. « What is so important that you need to pester me again ? »

« I have something to tell you, Jack and I wanted to know if I could come and see you. I don't want to talk about it on the phone. »

« Sara, you already told me everything you needed me to know, remember ? You said it right after we buried Charlie : that I was the worst father ever, that you didn't want to see me again, that you wished you'd never married me, that you'd have preferred to see me dead... What else could there be ? »

He had slowly raised his voice as he was speaking but had not realized it until his assistant peeped through the office door he had left ajar and asked if anything was the matter. That's when he had realized too that people in the offices next door had stopped working and were talking to each other in hushed tones.

He was normally unruffled on the surface and people respected and appreciated his cool manners, even in cases of emergency, so if their CO was yelling on the phone, letting out his anger in the process, something was obviously the matter and they felt concerned.

He paused, deeply sighed and then told his assistant that everything was ok and that he wanted him, please, to close the door before dismissing him. That got him all the more angry, resentful, at his ex-wife. What business did she have to call him at work and disturb the working atmosphere ?!

« Sara, if you want to say something, say it right now or don't ever call back, ok ? You've already thrown your bliss into my face last year. You're remarried. You don't need me anymore. »

« Jack, I just wanted to tell you myself before you got wind of it by a third party : I've given birth to healthy baby. A boy. Charlie has a brother. »

Jack froze. Anything but that, please. His vision blurred, his hands got clammy and he felt like the wall that had enclosed his heart ever since his son had died and that he had gradually and painfully lifted in moments of friendship with his team and tenderness with Sam had shut back into place.

« Jack... Are you still there ? Did you hear what I said ? » He could feel concern and even compassion in her voice but that didn't register. Only pain and suffering were left.

« What do you want me to say, Sara ? Congratulations, good luck ? Please, don't call me again. » And he hung up, slowly and absent-mindedly setting the receiver back into place.

He felt ten years older than he was and the migraine was already envelopping his skull, a physical pain offering relief from the emotional one.


	2. Chapter 2

As one reviewer wrote to me, it has to be an AU because in reality, Landry comes after O'Neill. So, my first idea was not to respect reality in which Jack still loves Sara so he cannot be pissed at her , only at himself for Charlie's death. But that would be sad too and I don't want Jack to be that way. So what I tried to do was to have him realize he was wrong in the first chapter because he was angry at himself for Charlie but also for not asking Sam to sacrifice her career to be with him. This story couldn't possibly remain without some sort of closure but I don't want to be too sugary and sweet (done that already in other stories!) so it ends on an open ending. Tell me what you think !

A Ghost from the Past – Chapter 2

Jack grabbed two painkillers from the side drawer of his desk and gulped them down with some coffee he had left untouched after she had called, then he banged the drawer shut and looked at the photos on his desk, those of Charlie and that of his team. That's when it hit him : he was not mad at Sara. He was just still mad at himself for what had happened to Charlie. He still loved Sara and wished she at least could be at peace. He would call her back later and apologize. But right now, something was nagging at him as he mused upon the photo of SG-1 : he had been irritated lately, grumpy and not very nice with the staff. He didn't play pranks on his assitant as he used to and would not return Daniel's phone calls.

But of course it was not Daniel he was thinking of at the moment it was Sam. Those piercing blue eyes of hers were looking at him from the picture as they had done so for so many years when they were still working together. God he missed her ! He would get a call or a visit from time to time but ever since they'd both been reassigned he now was aware that he was fooling himself. He was utterly mad at himself for that too : enough was enough he should have asked her a long time ago to come home to him. They had sacrificed enough to both their careers and soon he would be too old to ask her to be with him. The window of opportunity had been left ajar for a long time but he could see it closing a little bit more each day. Deep inside he knew that if he asked her, she would leave everything behind and run to him. He needed to hold her and hear her giggling, and not like once every ten years !

He grabbed the phone and called his assistant : « Listen carefully, Sergeant », he said, « You have ten minutes tops to get Colonel Carter on that phone. Got it ? Good ! » He hung up, settled comfortably in his chair and grinned at his reflection in the window pane overlooking the stargate.


End file.
